


Strange Friendship

by Morefiercethanfire



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-18
Updated: 2015-10-18
Packaged: 2018-04-26 23:46:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 614
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5025373
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Morefiercethanfire/pseuds/Morefiercethanfire
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After Buffy's death, Spike and Xander get together to drown their sorrows and talk a bit about their feelings.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Strange Friendship

Xander sighed as he crushed the beer can and tossed it into the trash can. From next to him came the comment, “That was a pretty good throw, you know.” Spike was done with his first bottle of whiskey and was starting on his second, but he still wasn't completely drunk. They had developed a strange friendship after Buffy's death, one that involved them taking turns watching one another get drunk. By unspoken agreement, only one of them got drunk at a time, while the other just stood by and watched or, in Xander's case, drank an entire six-pack of beer.

It all started one night when Xander was drinking at the Bronze about two weeks after Buffy's death. He'd just ordered his fifth round when a guy accidentally bumped him as he came up to the bar. “Watch it!” Xander snapped, glaring at him with enough heat to warp rock. Unfortunately for Xander, the guy didn't take his objection so well. He ended up getting punched in the nose and attacked by three of the guy's friends. They dragged him outside and slammed him up against the wall, where he was pretty sure they intended to pulverize him and leave him in a bloody heap afterwards. He was bracing for the first blow when he heard a familiar voice ask, “You sure you blokes want to tangle with that one?” A crunching sound told him Spike had vamped out, but he probably could've figured that out from the screams and sudden flight of his attackers- if he wasn't so drunk, that was. Spike grabbed his arm before he could fall down and sighed, then said, “Listen, mate, if you're that set on gettin' drunk an' startin' fights, you need to stick by me.” Xander didn't remember his response, but he'd never attempted to repeat that night, and eventually they'd formed a strange friendship based on drinking together.

Xander generally got drunk on Buffy's back porch, since it allowed Spike to keep an eye on Dawn. Spike preferred his crypt as a drinking place, and since tonight was his night, they'd camped out there, Spike on top of the sarcophagus and Xander in Spike's recliner. Neither of them had mentioned what night it was yet, but they both knew. Tonight was three months since Buffy died.

Xander glanced over at Spike, who was polishing off his second bottle. He was about to ask if he was going to try for three when the vampire spoke. “Doesn't feel like three months, does it? Feels like longer, like- like years, dunnit?”

He shrugged. “I guess.” Truthfully, he hadn't thought about it, because if he did, he'd have to admit that Buffy really was dead, and she wasn't coming back the way he wanted her to.

Spike didn't say anything for a while, and then he asked, “D'you think she can see us now?”

"I don't know.”

“I hope not. It's bad enough I-”

Xander looked over at Spike and frowned when he didn't finish his sentence. “You what?”

“I failed her,” Spike confessed, his voice wobbling in a way that said exactly why Spike had been getting drunk as often as possible for the past three months.

“Maybe we all did,” Xander replied, thinking of the countless times Buffy had had to save his life. “Maybe the whole world did.”

A dull thud was the only answer to his profound statement. Xander looked over to see that Spike had passed out on the lid of the sarcophagus. Xander shook his head, used to the way these nights ended by now. He pulled a blanket over the sleeping vampire and said, “Good-night, Spike,” then let himself out.


End file.
